Desiro ML gets up to speed: Siemens presents this multiple unit at InnoTrans

On display at this year’s show is a three-car version of the electric multiple unit like that ordered by Angel Trains, one of Europe’s biggest leasing companies of rolling stock, for the German regional rail operator Mittelrheinbahn.

The Desiro ML design is based on current European standards and is therefore especially well-suited for operation in European countries. It is available in various electric versions as well as a diesel-electric model. The first of 17 vehicles ordered from Siemens by Angel Trains in March 2007 are currently being built in Krefeld-Uerdingen in Germany and are scheduled to enter service in the Mittelrheinbahn network in December 2008. They will start carrying passengers on the Cologne—Coblenz and Coblenz—Mainz routes in Germany in time for the beginning of the Winter timetable. Each Desiro ML is built for at a maximum speed of 160 km/h, is 71 meters long and can seat 252 passengers. Thanks to its low boarding height, it also offers easy access for riders with impaired mobility.

In May 2008, the railway company in Belgium – “Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belges/ Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen” (SNCB/ NMBS) – also ordered a three-car version of Desiro ML from Siemens for its regional passenger rail services. The key to clinching this deal with SNCB/ NMBS was the single-car concept of the Siemens platform. Seating on Desiro ML can be arranged to suit varying capacity requirements – just one of the many advantages of this concept. This led SNCB to opt for the longer 9-meter unit, which has 280 seats and offers more space than the Angel Trains version.

Siemens will supply a total of 305 trains to SNCB/ NMBS between 2011 and 2016. Two hundred and ten units will operate in single mode (3 kV DC), and ninety-five in dual mode (3 kV DC/25 kV AC). Previous generations of Desiro multiple units are already providing successful service in such countries as Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Slovenia and the USA.

The Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) of Siemens AG is the worldwide leading supplier of production, transportation and building technologies. With integrated hardware and software technologies as well as comprehensive Industry-specific solutions, Siemens increases the productivity and efficiency of its customers in the fields of industry and infrastructure. The Sector consists of six divisions: Building Technologies, Industry Automation, Industry Solutions, Mobility, Drive Technologies and Osram. With around 209,000 employees worldwide Siemens Industry achieved in fiscal 2007 total sales of approximately EUR40 billion (pro forma, unconsolidated).

The Mobility Division (Erlangen, Germany) is the internationally leading provider of transportation and logistics solutions. With its "Complete mobility" approach, the Division is focused on networking the various modes of transportation in order to ensure the efficient transport of people and goods. “Complete mobility” combines the company's competence in operations control systems for railways and traffic control systems for roadways together with solutions for airport logistics, postal automation, traction power supplies and rolling stock for mass transit, regional and mainline services, as well as forward-looking service concepts.

Tiny pores at a cell's entryway act as miniature bouncers, letting in some electrically charged atoms--ions--but blocking others. Operating as exquisitely sensitive filters, these "ion channels" play a critical role in biological functions such as muscle contraction and the firing of brain cells.

To rapidly transport the right ions through the cell membrane, the tiny channels rely on a complex interplay between the ions and surrounding molecules,...

The miniaturization of the current technology of storage media is hindered by fundamental limits of quantum mechanics. A new approach consists in using so-called spin-crossover molecules as the smallest possible storage unit. Similar to normal hard drives, these special molecules can save information via their magnetic state. A research team from Kiel University has now managed to successfully place a new class of spin-crossover molecules onto a surface and to improve the molecule’s storage capacity. The storage density of conventional hard drives could therefore theoretically be increased by more than one hundred fold. The study has been published in the scientific journal Nano Letters.

Over the past few years, the building blocks of storage media have gotten ever smaller. But further miniaturization of the current technology is hindered by...